Saturday April 29, 2017

I am fairly sure that most German gamers have figured out how to get the original, non-butchered version of Half-Life by now, but Deutschland has finally allowed the uncensored version of the classic game to be releasedآ—if Valve ever chooses to do so, that is. Over the last two decades, some gamers have been subjected to screws instead gore, NPCs that merely sit down instead of dying, and aliens evaporating into thin air. Will the censored copies be considered collector’s items now?

The changes to the German version of Half-Life are near-legendary. Most notable is the replacement of human enemies with robot soldiers who look like the Decepticon Shockwave signed up for Dad’s Army (as seen above) but there’s also a slew of bloodless deaths for aliens who simply evaporate moments later, while Barnacles particularly release a shower of screws rather than gore when killed. Friendly NPCs such as scientists and security guards aren’t visibly harmed killed if you shoot them but instead take a seat and the floor and give you a disappointed look.